NORTHAMPTON — The pediatric unit at Cooley Dickinson Hospital remains open and will not close until the hospital comes up with a plan to address the needs of children requiring inpatient pediatric services.

“This is more of an evolution of planning,” said Mark Novotny, chief medical officer at the hospital.

He said they don’t need the dedicated number of nine beds for children now because the numbers of pediatric patients have and continue to dwindle. Earlier this year, the hospital said that trend meant it would eliminate the pediatric inpatient unit.

Last year, Novotny said, the hospital treated about 100 children in a year and the average stay was less than two days.

At the same time, he said, while the hospital plans for the future, it will continue providing those services. Doctors, nurses and administrators have been meeting and will continue meeting to address the pediatric future, he said. There is another meeting scheduled for Wednesday.

Three task forces created to look at what that future might entail are continuing that work, he said.

He said they are looking look at what other hospitals are doing and one such option might be extending stays in the emergency room or areas near the emergency room for observation.

“We will not close inpatient (units) until we have a really good plan with what will do,” he said. The Department of Public Health has to sign off on any change and he said they would not sign off on anything without that. He said some in the community think they have already stopped providing pediatric inpatient treatment.

He thinks the word “closure” is “a bit of a lightning rod.” He reiterated the hospital’s commitment to the community.

“We accept our responsibility in the community for all patients.”

He said they are also looking at augmenting the hospital's newborn care. “We would like to enhance and do more with newborns,” he said. They do about 800 deliveries a year. He said they wouldn’t offer the kind of care offered at Baystate in its neonatal unit but would like to be certified for and able to treat newborns with respiratory issues, for example.

He said it will be months before they file their request to change services with the state and then there is a 90-day waiting period before they can actually stop the services they are giving now. “We’re not in a big race.”